June 2019

Although efforts were made to decentralize in Mexico during the late 20thcentury, federal and state-level policy has continued to supersede local governance. Local governments in Mexico have limited financial and institutional capacities and are seldom able to guide urban development and construction processes, for example. The result of this top down approach has sometimes been sprawling and unsustainable development patterns, particularly during the 2000s, when federal and several state governments backed large, peripheral housing developments. These developments placed a burden…